


Worth Keeping An Eye On

by angelheadedhipster, nitpickyabouttrains



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, GAIMAN Neil - Works, Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, PRATCHETT Terry - Works, The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Cartwheels, Crossover, Death, Gen, Happy Birthday Erin, Our Favorite People Hanging Out, People We Like Meeting And Talking, We Wrote You A Present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-17 11:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelheadedhipster/pseuds/angelheadedhipster, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitpickyabouttrains/pseuds/nitpickyabouttrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years later, a meeting by the side of the road.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth Keeping An Eye On

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Erin (halfthesizetwicethefun.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Shout out to our Betas, Jon and Angela.

"I bet you can't," said Adam, smirking sideways at her.

"I absolutely can," said Pepper primly. "I just can't right now, because I am wearing a skirt."

"No excuse," said Adam, and grabbed the back of her skirt, flipping it up just a little bit. In public, no less.

People often asked Pepper how she'd managed to go out with Adam Young for as long as she had. They phrased it as if they were impressed with her fortitude or devotion or something, but she knew what they really meant was "How did a bony, freckly Pippi Longstocking-type manage to snag an Adonis like Adam Young, and keep him?"

Pepper always smiled with all of her teeth when people asked this, and said something that wasn't an answer at all. Something like, "We've known each other a long time." Or, "it's easy with him." And people would nod, their foreheads still furrowed, and go on their way.

Pepper never told them the truth, which was that she was the only person Adam could date, precisely because she didn't think he was a Greek god. He liked her because she didn't worship him.

Which was a bit tough, even for her, because Adam Young at sixteen was a force of nature. He was so beautiful it was almost impossible to look at him, golden curls and glowing skin, eyes that danced and sparked, a smile that lit up not just the room he was in but at least three or four rooms around him. He moved through the world like it was made for him, all grace and lithe quickness, like a panther, like sunlight on water. Teachers forgave even his most absurd transgressions when he widened his blue eyes and looked at them through his lashes, which was especially strange because Adam's eyes were usually hazel, almost orange. He was on all the sports teams at their school, and he was good, but mostly the teams won because when Adam Young stood in front them, backlit by floodlights, his eyes fierce and his muscles gleaming with sweat, and urged his teammates to destroy the other side...well, there wasn't much they wouldn't do to obey him, up to and including grievous bodily harm.

Around Pepper, though, and around Wensleydale and Brian, Adam got to be a bit smaller, a bit grubbier. His hair got tangled, his skin seemed to glow less, his smiles were less blinding and magnificent and more teasing and goofy. He liked being around them, and they liked having him around. Things were always, every time, bar none, more fun when Adam was around.

Even walking home from school was more exciting.

"Adam!" she squealed, and batted his hand away. "Still, I'd like to see you cartwheel across the road in a skirt."

"I could," he said. "I'd look better'n you in it, too."

He probably would, thought Pepper, and then scowled at him. "Fine," she said. "Where am I going to?"

Adam grinned and pointed. "Grocery store across the street. Bonus points if you do a pirouette between lanes."

"Of course," said Pepper grimly. "Here, hold my things."

The first lane was easy, and Pepper did a wonderful spin between lanes, she thought, complete with a deep sarcastic bow to Adam on the other side. She was most of the way across the second lane, almost at the grocery store, when suddenly there was a loud honking, and a rushing noise, a grinding noise, and when she looked up to her left it was too late.

The crash must have been incredibly loud, but all Pepper could hear was a howl of "Pepper! Nooooo!" so loud she thought the whole world could hear it. She was on the street now, and her entire body was burning, but it felt far away, not her. There were more honks and sounds of crashing metal that she heard dimly, confusedly, and then Adam was standing over her, blocking the sun, leaving her face in shadow. She blinked up at him, blood in her eyes.

She must have hit her head, because that had to be Adam, who else would it be, but her vision kept shifting - there was Adam's face, familiar and comforting, and then she was looking up into a some sort of monster's head, wolf-like jaws and pointing ears, slavering on her, and then there was just a gaping void, rushing empty blackness, and then a buzzing noise, flames for eyes and sharp cruel spikes. She tried to blink, tried to shake her head, but she was so tired, and her body was falling away from her. Adam's mouth was moving, or something was, something red and dripping, but she couldn't hear anything, and then her eyes were closing, as much as she tried to keep them open, and there was nothing

+++

According to the hourglass in the recesses of his cloak, DEATH should have been right on time. He always was. Upon arriving on the country two lane road in Tadfield, however, DEATH found a rather unusual sight.

The set-up was one that DEATH had seen countless times before. There was a truck stopped in the middle of the road, the front end looking rather smashed up. Next to that was a girl the ground, covered in dirt and blood. On any other day, this was the part where DEATH would go up and collect. But today was not just any day.

Hovering above the prone body was a figure that DEATH had seen before, although it had been years and DEATH did not recall him. DEATH was after all, rather busy, and could not be bothered to remember every human he encountered. After all, Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan and Lord of Darkness - DEATH couldn’t keep all the apocalypses straight. He should have remembered this one. A golden haired youth, looking grim and determined, and he seemed to be glowing. A warm white light was emanating from him, enveloping the whole scene.

The boy had both hands on the body of the girl, one on her head and one over her heart, and a look of concentration on his face. He looked rather like he was used to things happening for him without much effort and now he found he had to try. And his eyes were glowing red.

On the ground, the girl began to stir and move, waking up. DEATH, an expert on these matters, could tell this was not a soul he would be collecting today. He had come all this way for nothing.

Pulling the hourglass out of his sleeve, DEATH watched in fascination as more sand seemed to materialize in the top half of the turner. Blood red sand. UH, THAT IS NEW. 

There was a chortle from off to his left. DEATH turned to see a familiar woman. Now, not many people could see DEATH. He was rather used to operating without an audience. The ankh necklace that glimmered on her neck and eye of Horace by her right eye marked her as no ordinary person. But, then, did one of the Endless really count as people?

This one in particular was less of an observer. They were aspects of the same idea, who served the same purpose, two sides of one coin. They were not often in the same place, but it had certainly happened before.

GREETINGS, said DEATH, with a slight nod of his skeletal head.

“Was this one of yours or one of mine?” Death asked, leaning back against a fence on the side of the road, inclining her head toward the accident.

It happened, on occasion, wires got crossed. They tried not to talk about it, it looked bad, two of them showing up for one soul. That was why normally they had the task divided, each covered a different world, different dimensions and realities. There were, however, the occasional individuals who crossed-over into both territories.

IT DOES NOT MATTER, I SHOULD THINK, said DEATH. THERE IS NOTHING HERE FOR EITHER OF US.

“What about the girl?” Death raised an eyebrow, “It’s her time.”

DEATH held up the hourglass, so that Death could see it. SOMETHING CURIOUS HAS HAPPENED. SOMETHING I HAVE NOT SEEN BEFORE. THE GIRL HAS BEEN GRANTED MORE TIME.

Death gave the hourglass a curious look, the crimson grains falling ever so slowly. It was full of years now, plenty of time. And for her part, she could also tell that the girl on the ground did not yet belong in her realm. But she had, for just a split second. “I think the term is Resurrection,” Death said thoughtfully.

Both DEATH and Death turned their gaze onto the road. The glowing had ceased, but there was still a faint light around the boy. His eyes were still as red as the blood on the girl’s face, although no longer shining. He flashed an annoyed look and the glow faded some more, so that it was barely noticeable. He gave a satisfied nod and reached down to help the girl up.

As if sensing the two sets of unearthly eyes on him, the boy looked up at the two onlookers. He grimaced and his eyes blazed, for just a second, as if in warning.

I THINK IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA KEEP AN EYE ON THAT ONE, said DEATH.

"Ah," said a new voice, British accent, slightly sibilant. "We had rather thought so, too."

The two dark figures on the road looked up, meeting the eyes of a man dressed in a sharp black suit, winged collar and snakeskin boots. Next to him stood what looked, to the untrained eye, like a slightly disheveled professor of Old English literature wearing an argyle vest with tea stains on it, flyaway hair, and small wire-rimmed glasses.

YOU KNOW THIS BOY? asked Death, looking from the two new figures to the boy in the road, who was peering at his girl, his eyes fierce, focused.

"We, um," said Aziraphale. "We do. Or, we almost did."

"Strictly speaking," said Crowley, "That's not a boy. It’s the antichrist." There was a pregnant pause. "Or, he was."

"Was?" said the girl with the ankh, now lounging calmly against the fence. "I didn't think AntiChristhood was something you could opt out of being, like an organ donor."

"It's not, really," said Aziraphale. He was looking at Adam, his eyes big behind his glasses. "Which is why Crowley and I have set up a variety of mechanisms to keep tabs on him. We rather thought...something...might happen."

"It's an interesting experiment, I suppose, if you think of that way," said Crowley. "What if you were planning a big apocalypse, the biggest, and at the last minute the host cancels? What might he do then?"

HE MIGHT GET A GIRLFRIEND, said Death, looking towards Pepper. Her eyes were blinking, and color was returning to her cheeks.

Across the road, Pepper let Adam lead her off. “You will be fine,” Adam said, the tone of his voice not a question, like you might ask someone who had just been hit by a car, but a command. He was willing it to be so and there could be no question about it happening, or at least that was how it sounded to Pepper.

There was something about him which seemed just a little off, something not right. She had noticed it before, but always shrugged it off. Maybe it was the head injury, but Pepper would have sworn his voice sounded different just then, deeper. And there was something off about his eyes.

He must have been right, though, because Pepper was not feeling hurt at all. There was blood on her face and her clothes, but she was not injured. Adam was never going to let her live this one down, not being able to finish the dare.

Pepper looked around and was surprised to see that there were four other people by the road, who she had not noticed before. She would have sworn she and Adam were alone when she started her dance across the road. It was a strange looking group, individually and together, and they were all watching her and Adam. She stuck out her tongue.

It worked almost like a signal because the cluster broke right up. The black-clad woman took two steps away before disappearing into thin air. The tall hooded figure pocketed a large glass object he was holding before blinking out in much the same fashion. The final two figures shot her and Adam a bemused look before getting into an old Bentley, which looked too old and broken to run, parked by the fence. Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Pepper thought she must have hit her head harder than she thought and imagined it.

She hadn’t.


End file.
